I thought about this question the other day on a run as I tried to breathe through a cramp that had hit my stomach. A common thing that happens on my runs and sometimes breathing helps clear it up. Sometimes it doesn’t and that’s probably because I overate beforehand.

I know there are some benefits to it in other sports. I have seen people hold their breath for swimming which makes sense because you turn your head less and it may help you power through a couple more meters. There seemed to be no reason that it would benefit running at all because breathing more or less in a moment does not effect your form or slow you down. It seems pretty positive to not mess with this. So why would I change something that already works? Well…

I have always enjoyed seeing how long I could hold my breath for. As a kid, I loved diving to the bottom of a lake, grabbing onto some mud, and start counting the seconds. I never got over the enjoyment of holding my breath underwater and after university, I met my friend Derek who also enjoyed this experience. We currently are both trying to see if who can break five minutes first for holding their breath. After a handful of years of trying together, he holds our group record in a time of 4 minutes and 20 seconds with me close behind in 4 minutes and 13 seconds.

I had never tried holding my breath running before. Maybe if I passed an area a skunk just sprayed or passing a sweaty teammate. Other than that, no attempt to find out how long I could hold my breath running was ever made.

Following my first thought of how long could I hold my breath while running was wondering if there was any benefit to it. Let’s see what the Internet thought.

Benefits of breath holding linked to running:

A quick search highlighted that it may improve CO2 tolerance and enhance oxygen efficiency. The key word that it used for this was “may” rather than “will”. As I dived deeper, the risks seemed to pile up faster of getting more dizzy, lightheaded, or even fainting. It looked like this practice of holding one’s breath is sometimes used with elite runners but not all of them. Oh well, let’s see what would happen in my challenge anyway!

First Attempt:

This turned out to be much, much harder than I expected. I warmed up for about half a mile before getting to the local park. I started around a pace of 8 minutes per mile and went for the hold. As I breathed in, my body instantly wanted to breathe out the CO2 build up and continue getting air in and out. I felt my diaphragm struggling immediately and decided that there would be no way to get a long breath hold in on my first attempt. Typically when I warm up with breath holding, I have no issues holding my breath for over a minute on the first attempt. Running while doing this was going to be hard.

The seconds began ticking as slow as I could imagine and my thoughts of hitting a minute quickly diminished. After 5 seconds, I told myself to go for ten before gasping to a stop and trying my best to recover. Since it was the first attempt, it was my current record!

10 seconds – 23 meters (93 feet)

Second Attempt:

The second attempt went pretty similar to the first. I tried to give myself a better pre-hold warmup though before taking off.

Before this attempt, I focused on breathing in and out slowly in long counts. I also slowed my pace from 8 minutes per mile and quickly slowed down to about 9 minutes and 30 seconds per mile to let my body relax more. Both of these strategies did not impact the final result.

Much like the first attempt, my body immediately wanted to breath after a couple seconds. Slowing down gave me the opportunity to not look at my watch until 8-9 seconds had passed and by then, I just held on as best I could to make it a bit further. The result: 13 seconds – 29.7 meters (120 feet)

It was nice to break 100 feet and I felt every single one of those steps. It seemed the slower pace helped a little and probably knowing what to expect helped too. I got some weird looks from others at the park because I would suddenly stop out of the blue barely breathing before continuing again in a normal breath. It probably looked like horrible pacing. On to more attempts!

3rd and 4th Attempts:

At this point, I wanted to try to get to 30 seconds and breaking 20 seconds was the first step in that happening.

On my third attempt, I followed the same strategy with deep breaths and slowed the pace down to ten minutes per mile. I took about three minutes before going for attempt number three.

Much to my pleasant surprise, I didn’t feel horrible the first few seconds and thought I finally had the formula figured out. After five seconds though, my body displayed that my current strategy would only last a jiffy. I hit ten seconds with the normal strain beginning and managed to almost double my first attempt for a finish of 17 seconds – 45 meters (151.42 feet). This was almost halfway down a track straightaway, progress!

I figured I would try all the same things for my fourth attempt and that outcome of bodily feelings was pretty similar. The result though was the first 20 second finish with the result being: 20 seconds – 55 meters (180 feet). I was officially within 10 seconds of my goal! How hard could it be?? Hard.

5th and 6th Attempts:

At this point, I was coming upon 2 miles of running and the heat was starting to pour down from the Texas sun. I employed the same strategies of deep breaths and a slower pace before these attempts. Unfortunately, they both ended up right around 20 seconds and I didn’t seem to be able to bust out a longer hold.

I evaluated what was going on and I stopped running to see if I could just hold my breath without moving for a longer period. Turned out, I still had no problem getting in a one minute hold when not moving. Next, I began to walk. I tried to do the same thing walking and found myself to be able to hit 30 seconds without much strain.

Although it was good to see the breath hold with walking, the challenge was to do my best holding it while running and see how far I could get. So, I figured I would give it one last attempt and committed to the run. Hello Attempt Number 7, the final go!

The Final Attempt: Lucky Number Seven!

Once again for the final time, I did my typical warm up strategy and ran a bit further to mentally prepare for one last go. I had a couple sips of water from the local fountain and hoped that it could be the final change in my system. As I breathed out hard one last time, I began breathing in as quickly as I could before I hit start on the watch.

A few steps in, I knew I would be able to hit twenty seconds again and I still understood to take it easy. There were no guarantees at this point. I came upon 5 seconds without a struggle and soon hit ten seconds. It was looking up for your average runner Paul!

Once I closed in on 15 seconds, my chest began to tighten and I knew 30 seconds would be a long shot. I tried my best to not think about the watch and made strides for the next bend on the park route. Seconds slowly began ticking by and the strain to breath continued building. I glanced down at my watch feeling I only had a few seconds left and passed 20 seconds. Let’s see how long I could hold out for!

Pretty rapidly after 20 seconds, I started to feel dizzy and everything hurt. There would be no, safe, way I could hit 30 seconds and I gave it my all for a few more seconds. I hit one last step before dropping down with the hands on my knees as I let loose the air and began breathing hard. I stopped my watch and just continued hyperventilating before getting my breath back under control. When I saw my watch, I was just short of 30 seconds but ended with a personal record!

Personal record: 25 seconds – 70 meters (232 feet)

Woohooo! If you would have told me in the beginning that I would have set this record at 25 seconds, I wouldn’t have been as thrilled. After going through the attempt, I’m happy with the result. It would have been cool to get to a lap around the park track and I am impressed by anyone who can make it thirty seconds or longer. Actually I’m impressed by anyone who can make it five seconds or longer!

I can’t say I discovered any benefits to this experience outside of curiosity being addressed. Maybe I’ll give it a go again, maybe not. It seems a lot harder to go for a longer time knowing that there isn’t much return out of the experience. So we shall see what the future holds!

Hope you enjoyed this random fun running experience and I recommend to keep up the normal breathing!